As various kinds of networks such as the Internet as a worldwide network, LANs and the Intranet have advanced, there have been developed techniques and contents for enabling a variety of information to be shared over these networks.
Such technical advancement has also occurred in the medical industry, and techniques for sharing a variety of information over an internal network are being developed.
However, information sharing currently available within a hospital only allows the sharing of simple contents, such as personnel matters of users, treatment items, treatment reservation information, treatment particulars information and hospitalization information. In addition, only orders that doctors issue to patients after treatment, for example, information on whether to prepare which and how much medicine, whether to inject what injection, and whether to perform what examination, are being currently shared over these networks.
However, the most important information in the treatment and care of patients in a hospital is not the above listed information but individual status information depending on the disease symptoms of respective patients, such as nursing diaries written by nurses who observe the disease symptoms of patients, treatment opinions and treatment methods of doctors, and test and treatment results.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned information may be provided through charts written by doctors upon treating a patient, nursing diaries written by nurses upon caring for a patient, or various reports written by laboratory staff upon the testing or treatment of a patient.
However, there is a problem in that since there are a variety of contents to be input for respective clinical departments as well as a variety of means of acquisition for the aforementioned individual status information depending on the disease symptoms of the respective patients, such information cannot be indiscriminately standardized and computerized. Thus, there are currently no methods capable of sharing the aforementioned information over a hospital network.
In other words, there is a problem in that patient information cannot be managed more efficiently since the aforementioned individual status information depending on the patient's disease symptom are written in and managed through paper charts, even though network and computer techniques are being developed, and contents written in the paper charts are merely computerized by separate staff or systems.
There is a problem in that since the aforementioned information is not computerized, more rapid and accurate medical services cannot be provided to patients as patients are being examined or treated.
Meanwhile, the greatest contributor to problems in medical information is the fact that such information is not standardized. That is, insufficient standardization for medical information can be noted as one of the greatest problems in the development and settlement of such electronic records.
The need for medical information standardization as noted above will be described.
First, delays in the standardization of medical information are caused by the complexity of medical information itself as compared with information in other fields. That is, it is because medical information includes a variety of information formats such as text, images, photographs, and the like as well as simple numerical information, and the degree of processing of medical information varies from one-dimensional original information to completely processed high-dimensional information. Second, delays are caused by the fact that, in the medical industry, investment in information techniques is considered as “additional costs” unlike other fields. Third, delays are caused because the standardization task requires changes in medical practices.
Next, problems caused by non-standardization for medical information are as follows: First, such non-standardization obstructs the accurate and rapid collection of patient information. Second, it obstructs a user's access to patient information regardless of the place and system used. Third, it delays the development of a decision-determination system. Fourth, it delays clinical research and advancement using electronic medical records. Fifth, it obstructs medical treatment development through remote medical examination and education. Sixth, it obstructs the exchange of patient information and medical information. Finally, it delays research on quality evaluation, efficiency evaluation and management of medical treatment.